Secular organization holds first on-campus meeting

[SecularMotion]

The Society of Freethinkers met on the University of Dayton campus for the first time Sunday Nov. 13, at 302 Kiefaber St., an ArtStreet apartment.

The Society of Freethinkers is a proposed student group that aims to create a community for non-religious students and provide a forum that generates dialogue and discussion of issues of a secular worldview.

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"I think this demonstrates the importance of our need for official university recognition and especially the allowance of on-campus advertisement, so we are still going to strive for that goal," King said.

The institution stands behind its original decision to not recognize SOFT as an official student organization, said Christine Schramm, dean of students and associate vice president for Student Development. She said the decision has been made and is final, but university support without recognition is a possibility for SOFT, including amenities such as campus meeting spaces and campus lines of communication.

http://www.flyernews.com/articles/id/7176

[struggle4progress]

1. It's a private Catholic university

[SecularMotion]

2. So you're okay with private secular universities not recognizing student religious organizations?

[Jim Lane]

3. There's certainly no Constitutional violation.

Prospective students can and should take note that, even though the school isn't named after a saint, its administrators will enforce religious orthodoxy and will regard freedom of thought as a menace.

SOFT has accomplished something just by bringing this authoritarianism out into the open.

I, for one, am "OK with" the policy in the sense that it's legal. It would be a powerful reason for me not to attend or teach at such a school, though.

[humblebum]

4. Private institutions can recognize whatever groups they so choose.

Their survival very often depends upon marketing to and loyalty to a specific group or groups, and image is a key to that survival.

[struggle4progress]

5. If a privately-run atheist university decides it won't recognize student religious groups,

I have no skin in the game

The world's a big place, and all our minds are small in comparison to that, so it doesn't particularly bother me if a variety of different organizations have somewhat different ideas about priorities or about what they do and do not support

[SecularMotion]

6. It doesn't bother me either, as long as they're honest.

"As Marianists, we are a worldwide family of Catholic brothers, priests, sisters and committed lay people. Our spirit of hospitality and inclusiveness permeates campus. What distinguishes us is our constant seeking of truth and knowledge in our overall mission to improve the world."

http://www.udayton.edu/explore/index.php

False advertising?

[struggle4progress]

7. Perhaps 'spirit of hospitality and inclusiveness' means to them something other than

'we provide institutional support to any and all proposed student organizations' -- it might be, for example, that their notion of the 'spirit of hospitality' means they try not to resort immediately to accusations of personal hypocrisy whenever someone disagrees with them

Not being very familar with the Marianists, I'm afraid I'm not really competent to elaborate on any of their traditions regarding 'hospitality and inclusiveness'

:shrug: